Restoration of kelp described as successful

[question everything]

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Restoration of kelp described as successful

Coastkeeper Alliance counters detractors by citing habitat, educational benefits.

By PAT BRENNAN
The Orange County Register

A popular effort to grow giant kelp off the Southern California coast is succeeding, organizers say.

A report by the California Coastkeeper Alliance on Tuesday said 200 volunteers and biologists have restored 113,021 square feet of kelp from Santa Barbara to San Diego from 2001 through 2004, including 48,437 square feet in Crystal Cove as well as other sites off Laguna Beach. Much of the work was done under a $250,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Marine ecologist Paul Dayton at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography has raised scientific questions about the project. He says human efforts to grow the marine algae have little or no effect in the long run. Instead, kelp growth is governed mostly by climate cycles: In periods of colder water, kelp thrives, and in times of warm water, it dies back. Sea urchins, which eat giant kelp, also overrun the kelp beds at times, causing large chunks of them to disappear. Dayton sees little real benefit to the marine ecosystem from kelp-growing, despite its popularity.

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But Natalie Cosentino-Manning, a marine restoration specialist at NOAA who oversees the kelp grants, says she believes the jury is still out on whether human efforts to grow kelp really do create more habitat in the long run... Cosentino-Manning sees the project as a kind of experiment. It will take time to see who is right, she says - those who side with Dayton, or those who believe human efforts can lead to a significant increase in kelp growth.

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http://www.ocregister.com/ocr/2005/08/31/sections/local/local/article_655956.php